


My Great Big Super Hero Family

by Mix Stitch (Synph), nomedarte



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Alcoholism, Gen, M/M, Work In Progress, the appearance of child abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-12-08
Updated: 2013-04-26
Packaged: 2017-11-20 14:29:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/586387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Synph/pseuds/Mix%20Stitch, https://archiveofourown.org/users/nomedarte/pseuds/nomedarte
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peter Parker doesn't hide his bruises well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Concerned Caller

**Author's Note:**

> 1) there is no actual child abuse but I feel and have felt for a while that the side affects of being a child super hero are remarkable similar to signs of abuse and a there is a good chance a concerned observer would read it as such.
> 
> 2) This is a work in progress that may very likely never be finished. If it is it will ultimately be Tony/Steve but I don't ship them, I was writing this for a friend and have no real drive to finish it. If that friend or somebody else pushes me for more I will try to finish it but for now it is what it is and I feel it comes to a decent stopping point.
> 
> 3) The title will only make sense if I finish this.

“Office of Children and Family Services”

“Yes, hello… um… I’m a high school teacher for the New York Public School System. We’re required to report suspected cases of abuse correct?”

“Yes.”

“I knew that. I’ was just trying to make sure. I mean this is my first time having to do this and I was just trying to make sure.”

“Is there something you need to report?”

“Yes. Yes… I have a student whose uncle died recently. His aunt and uncle are his legal guardians; well just his aunt now I guess. Any way his uncle died recently and since then… um… well he’s grades have been slipping, and he was an A student before. And he has started to sleep in class and he’s no longer eating lunch. And we can’t reach his aunt and… um… the most worrying part is that he has bruises that he’s been trying to cover up. And he says he can’t tell us where they came from. I know separately these things could be something else but together they have me worried and… um… so I called you…”

“You did the right thing. I just need you to tell me his name and address so we can do a home check. Oh, and your name too, for our records.”

“Of course his name is…”


	2. Swinging by Home

Peter snuck in through his window as quietly as possible and dropped onto the bed. It had been a long day and he would have liked nothing more than to not have to move, but he didn’t have that luxury. 

The first thing he did was change his cloths, hiding the ones he had been wearing in his book bag. Then he checked his camera to make sure he really had gotten some good shots of Spider-man. He needed those pictures. They were the only way he could think of to bring in some money. 

After making sure his pictures and his camera were okay he left his room. He needed to check on Aunt May. He made sure he was as quiet as he possibly could as he walked to his aunt’s room. Aunt May was in her bed, asleep. That was pretty much what Peter had expected and hoped for. It was late after all and the night before he had heard her walking around the house when had come home at about 2:00 am. Peter slowly released the breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding and left her room as quietly as he had entered it.

His next stop on his journey around the house was at the bathroom. He needed to see what kind of damage he had gotten that night. He took off his shirt and looked in the mirror. He was covered in bruises and it hurt a little bit to breath but he didn’t think anything was actually broken. Worst damage seemed to be the giant bruise on his face. It hurt the most, and he knew from experience, that he wasn’t going to be able to hide it.

With his inspection done he went into the kitchen. He looked around hoping there might be some food. There wasn’t anything actually edible. To be honest he wasn’t expecting anything either. After the food everybody brought after Uncle Ben’s funeral had run out there hadn’t really been any in the house. When Peter had pictures of Spider-man he sold them and got some money. He had been able to keep most of the bills paid that way but he didn’t always have money for food and Aunt May really wasn’t in any condition to take care of these things.

The good news was that he had gotten a picture that night that he knew would make him some money. He just had to get down to the Daily Bugle before school started the next day and would be good. With nothing else for him to do, Peter went back to his room and called it a night.

In the morning he made sure he was ready for everything that day. He had everything he needed for school and a late night in his book bag. He checked on Aunt May; she hadn’t moved. Then he went in to the kitchen to make grocery list.

There was a knock on the door. Peter answered it to see two people on his porch.

“Can I help you?” Peter asked, trying to keep his voice down just in case.

“We’re with the Office of Children and Family Services.”


	3. Expectant Fathers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony and Steve are introduced and Tony is a nervous expectant father.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I have never had to deal with the foster system (which in a certain sense a good thing for which I am thankful) so I don't really know how this works. I do know that being a foster parent is a good thing.

It never ceased to amaze Tony that such an open space could be so claustrophobic. In all honesty he thought he'd be used to scrutiny. But the press and even S.H.I.E.L.D. had nothing on the scrutiny of Children and Family Services. Or maybe they were just harder on him because of the other two. It made him feel like one of his AI's or one of Bruce's science projects. And right now they were just in the lobby. But then he had been expecting the scrutiny. What he hadn't expected was for his and Steve's foster parent application to get this far.

They had talked about the possibility of them being rejected even before they started the process. They were not the ideal people to take in a child and they knew it. Tony was a recovering alcoholic who has been kidnapped more than once and had a very public life. Steve was technically almost 100 years old and had been technically dead for most of his life. Not to mention both of them had dangerous jobs; and everybody in the world knew that. They knew the chances of them being accepted (Tony had done the math) but Steve really wanted to be a parent and Tony really wanted to make Steve happy. So they had set out to make it happen.

Tony had publicly (semi)retired from the Avengers; claiming he wanted to focus more on Stark Industries. Rhodey had taken his place, although he still sometimes went out. He just paid a lot to keep it out of the press. (The first time he ever paid to keep something out of the media, at least that he was aware of.) Meanwhile Steve had started the paper work.

And life had gone on. And their application kept moving along. Steve had worried the entire time. The added stress made Tony want to drink. Really they were in good shape. They could afford to take on a child and had excellent recommendations, thanks entirely to Pepper and Rhodey. Despite all that Tony was sure the bad would out way the good. That was just the way his life went. That was why he was shocked to find himself here.

Tony and Steve had received a call earlier in the day telling them their application had been accepted and asking them to come over to speak to a social worker. Somebody was probably going to be placed with them that same day.

So now they were waiting and Tony was feeling claustrophobic in a big room. To top it off he was fidgeting; if the fact that Steve had just rested his hand on Tony's knee was anything to go by. Of course that could also mean that Steve was nervous too.

"Mr. Stark and Mr. Rodgers, could you please follow me?" A young woman asked as she walked past them and sent a text from her (obviously not SI) phone. The walk to her office was short; which is good because it was also tense and silent.

"I'm sorry for the wait and let me just say thank you for deciding to become foster parents." The young woman seemed genuine. "My name is Danielle Dunn and I'm going to be the social worker you work with if you are willing to take this child. We really need to get him in a house right now."

"When you say child how young are you talking?" Tony hadn't meant to interrupter but her really needed to know. The thought of being responsible for a young child, say under twelve, really scared him.

"He's fifteen and we really need to get him into a home. His age isn't going to be a problem is it?" Ms. Dunn looked nervous.

"No Ma'am," Steve said as he patted Tony on his knee.

"Okay, good." The social worker visibly relaxed. "A lot of foster parent applicants don't want to take teenagers. So, Sense you are willing to take him here are all the things you're going to need to know about him." Ms. Dunn said as she handed a folder over in Tony's direction. Steve took it before Tony could say anything.

"Everything is in that file including my number in case you need to call me. Any way the most important things are: His name is Peter Parker and he was taken out of his aunt's care while she's being investigated for child abuse." 

Tony felt like he needed a drink.


	4. Bringing Home Baby

Steve had always wanted a family of his own. He just hadn't expected it to look like this.

In the past when Steve had pictured himself bringing home a child it was never like this. Usually it had been bringing home his wife and new born baby from the hospital. Occasionally it had been picking up a young child from a home and bringing them to their new family. But he had never expected this. His actual experience had been... Well he had never imagined it.

The initial introductions had been stiff and stilted. Tony had been clearly uncomfortable and Peter...  Well Peter's reaction had been interesting.

After speaking to Ms. Dunn Steve had been expecting a sad broken child. He had not been prepared for Peter. Peter had appeared genuinely interested in beating both of them; almost excited even. But he also seemed torn and maybe even ashamed of his reaction. Steve hadn't known how to help either Tony or Peter.

Getting everybody into the car had initially made things more awkward. He had tried to engage both Tony and Peter in some light conversation. Neither had responded and Steve wasn't sure if having Happy drive would have made things better or worse. At least if Happy had been there somebody would have talked to him. Things actually got better when Tony got a call from Pepper that took up the entire rest of the drive.  Peter watched the city go by and Steve took the opportunity to look at the file he had been handed.

Despite the initial, truly awkward, meting, showing Peter around the tower was going well. Tony had visible relaxed when Steve let him play tour-guide. Peter's response was a little harder to read. He kept looking for exits in a way that reminded Steve of all the spies he worked with.

"Hey Cap, where you listening?" Tony's question startled Steve, who had tuned him out when he started talking about the hole Hulk had put in his floor, and had decided to just watch the other two interact. They seemed to be bonding.

Steve blushed. Both Tony and Peter looked almost like they were entertained.

"Sorry Tony. What were you saying?"

"I said JARVIS is making Peter's key card so all that's left is to show Pete The Lab and decide on dinner."

Steve noticed both Tony and Peter seemed really excited and he didn't think it was just about dinner. (Although from what he had read in Peter's file...) He sighed.

"Tony..."

"I meant I was going to show him where it is in case he needs to find me." Peter seemed to visibly deflate and Steve didn't have the heart to point out that JARVIS both tell and show Peter the way if he needed to find Tony.

So they went off to probably do more than just see where Tony's lab was and Steve made dinner.

Dinner went well. Once Peter relaxed he had a million different questions to ask and he mentioned a girl, Gwen, several times. The only time things got really weird was when super heroes came up. Both Peter and Tony got quiet and Steve wasn't sure how to handle that. Thankfully JARVIS saved the day by reminding everybody he was there. That got both of them speaking again.

Steve sat back and watched. And yeah, even though the initial meeting had been awkward and Peter clearly had some issues and some big secrets things were going well. So bringing home Peter wasn't like anything Steve had pictured. But Tony had seemed to be doing well and they had given a kid who needed it a place to live. Every body seemed happy enough and Steve was optimistic for the future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look a new chapter! I apologize for any verb tense issues these as with all other mistakes are all mine. I just didn't want you guys to wait any longer for the next chapter.


	5. Assessing the Situation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter reflects on his new situation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. And that it's on the short side. It fought me tooth and nail to even come but I know when to admit defeat and so I let it come at it's own time.

The past week had been the strangest week of Peter's life. And that includes the week he got bit by a spider and got super powers. He was living in Stark Tower _with_ Tony Stark and Captain America! And the tower was even cooler than people knew. There was a private lab inside the penthouse. The AI who ran the house, JARVIS, was amazing and could do almost anything he was asked.

And he had a chauffeur now. Actually that made him uncomfortable but Tony and Captain America (No. Steve, he had asked him to call him Steve,) had insisted on it. Although, seeing Flash's face when he had first shown up in a cool car had been _awesome_. Gwen thought it was cool and Harry said you get used to it. And did he mention Gwen thought it was cool?

But Peter felt guilty about enjoying all of this. And it made it hard for him to go out and be Spider-man. He was only in this situation because being Spider-man made him tired and hungry, and had him coming home whit bruises. Some people, who's business it most definitely wasn't, had somehow thought that Aunt may was abusing and neglecting him. But that just wasn't true. Aunt May was grieving. And sure sometimes food was hard to get but the pictures of Spider-man he had been selling to The Daily Bugle had usually gotten him enough to pay for some of the stuff they needed.

But apparently the bruises he had gotten from fighting crime had been the thing that had convinced everybody he was being abused. He had tried to tell everybody that Aunt May _wasn't_ abusing him; that the bruises came from somewhere else. When they had asked him where, though, he froze.

He couldn't tell anybody he was Spider-man. They would make him stop and he couldn't do that. It was his responsibility to do this. And it was his way of honoring Uncle Ben. Besides, they probably would have taken him away from Aunt May anyway, to run experiments or something.

So when they had pressed him for the answer he had kept his mouth shut.

Now his bruises were fading. If they disappeared completely and he didn't get new ones everybody would think Aunt May really had done it. He had to find a way to get out of Stark Tower and fight crime.

Peter sighed.

How do you sneak out of a smart house?


	6. Relaps

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again sorry this took so long to get out.  
> So for once this chapter is actually has been through some sort of editing process beyond being transferred from paper to the computer. And I want to thank my friend Zina for actually writing the chapter for me. I couldn't deal with Tony's issues so I passed them on to her and I am grateful. That said that shouldn't happen for the rest of the stories. Any tense issues are mine because I missed them when I was going over the chapter and making changes and they reflect my editing abilities not her writing abilities.

There was something about having the house to himself that made Tony feel lonely inside.

It was a school night, which should have meant going over Peter’s homework with him and preparing to give Steve another brief crash course in American cinematography. Instead, Steve had been gone for three days on a mission with Natasha. And Peter, well, the kid could talk a monk into sinning. After the first few days of “But I want to see my friends” and “we’re not too old for sleepovers,” Tony had caved and called the social worker to ask for permission.

Several sleepovers later and Tony was left half wondering if he’d even see Peter again before Steve came home.

Normally, the house was almost full with Steve and Peter talking away at each other and trying to figure out each other’s boundaries. After all, a week wasn’t enough time for everything to get sorted out. And while Tony had technology and science in common with Peter, and Steve had the art stuff… Peter still hadn’t opened up.

Peter still hid things from them. He still kept parts of his life separate from theirs; kept most of his friends separate unless he needed to work on school projects in the Tower.

The kid still treated them like they’re always going to be strangers and that hurt on several levels. However, that’s what they’re supposed to be working on. That’s why they tried to spend weeknights together: tried to shorten the gap.

It’s what they would have been doing if Steve hadn’t been halfway across the world doing god knows what and if Peter hadn’t been spending every night possible out of the house.

Instead, in the middle of the week on a school night and he had had the house to himself. Well, JARVIS remained ever present. But there wasn’t much entertainment that Tony had gleaned from his AI aside from taking the system apart and doing some obviously unneeded maintenance (and Pepper has wrung promises out of him that he’d refrain from doing that after the last time his boredom got the best of him).

So Tony turned to the bar stretching across one side of the den instead.

He knew he shouldn’t. He had stopped. He had stopped in order to get the kid who really didn’t need more shit in his life. And he had stopped for Steve… And he had stopped for himself. But Peter and Steve weren’t home. That was the problem. And he really wanted a drink.

Tony mixed his own drinks and got fancy because he could, whipping up a massive martini and garnishing it appropriately before guzzling it down in the blink of an eye. However, the idea of showing off for empty space made Tony feel even lonelier than before. So he grabbed a tumbler and a bottle of his second best whiskey (the best whiskey he owned was currently under lock and key in the desk in Pepper’s office, he should have just given her the whole bar), and headed for the couch.

“Call Pepper,” Tony said without raising his voice. JARVIS could hear him even when whispering. He felt free to set the bottle and tumbler down on the coffee table in front of him and watch as a holoscreen appeared in the air. A pale blue loading symbol rotated in the air before him.

“Tell her it’s important,” Tony said even though it wasn’t. The only thing going on there was Tony about to undo several months of progress and he’d liked to talk to her before his world started going sideways.

JARVIS made a noise that would have sounded like disappointed if not for the fact that technically, an AI shouldn’t be able to sound disappointed. Tony was good, but he wasn’t _that_ good.

A second later, Pepper’s face appeared on screen. She looked tired for the middle of the afternoon in Los Angeles. As Tony watched, she pushed her fingers through her hair and blew a frustrated breath out from her mouth.

“What’s going on, Tony,” she asked, voice full of worry. “I have a meeting in an hour and I have to go--” Pepper cut herself off and leaned forward, squinting at Tony. Then she frowned. “What’s wrong? Are you sick? Where’s Peter? Or Steve?”

Tony tried to smile.

“Everything’s fine,” he said, feeling a bit of backwards pride for the way that his voice hadn’t shook in the slightest as he lied. “Steve’s off busting heads and I’m here about to head in for the night. Don’t worry about me.”

Pepper wasn’t at her best. She seemed to miss the tone in Tony’s voice as shook her head hard enough that her ponytail whipped behind her.

“I’ll be back soon,” she promised. “And so will Steve and Peter.”

“I know.”

Pepper smiled a little.

“Try and get some sleep, Tony,” she said and then the holoscreen blinked out; leaving Tony by himself with a bottle of whiskey and a potentially pissed off AI as his only company.

Tony leaned over and poured himself a shot of whiskey. Drinking it made him feel worse than the idea of the martini had and he frowned once the mild burn in the back of his throat has abated.

“I will.”


End file.
